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At 12:58pm on September 21st, 2014, four hundred thousand people fell silent. One minute later, the roar began.

My son and I stood in the line at the time near 72nd street, which had been designated by organizers as the Solutions section – the solution being food, in our case. We were surrounded by people carrying signs that said “Cook Organic Not the Planet,” “Support Local Food” and “Label That Shit.” Behind us was a large group from the Climate Reality Project, in whose midst vice-president Al Gore had suddenly appeared earlier in the morning. Their solution was renewable energy and their signs asked plaintively “Why?” (a coal plant) and “Why Not?” (solar panels). In front of us was a noisy crowd of justice activists, many of them young people, carrying signs that said “Restaurant Workers Need a Living Wage” and “Justice for Migrant Farm Workers.” Further on, a young man wore a superhero costume and a green wig. And a big smile.

Welcome to the People’s Climate March.

A great deal has been written in recent days about the largest climate policy protest in history, mostly from a bird’s eye perspective: how the organizers expected 100,000 marchers and got 400,000 instead; how it was carefully timed to send a clear signal to the 120 world leaders about to arrive in Manhattan for a global Climate Summit at the United Nations; how it was intended to break our political complacency and inaction on climate change by giving voice to average citizens; and how it demonstrated that dissent still mattered in a democracy.

All true – and all good reasons for traveling from New Mexico to New York City. They were especially good reasons to bring my 15-year old son along. After all, it is his generation that will be dealing with the consequences tomorrow of what we do today (or don’t do), pro and con. There was another reason to go, however – a street-level reason that I didn’t expect:
the joy of simply being there. It had been a long time since I had participated in a protest march and I had forgotten what an intensely visceral experience they can be, full of heart-stirring emotions and earthy sensations. As we took our place in line, for example, three things about the crowd struck me right away: the colors, the smiles and the sounds.